The invention herein pertains to guns which fire paintballs and particularly pertains to containers for paintballs, namely gun magazines and paintball pods which are engagable for rapid loading.
The use and playing with paintball guns has rapidly increased in recent years with various teams engaging in mock combat. Each player uses, generally a gas powered gun capable of firing spherical liquid-filled projectiles containing a dye or paint which are commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cpaintballsxe2x80x9d. As these guns have improved in operation and firing speed, the need has developed for larger gun magazines and for faster reloading. It is usual for combatants to carry a supply or xe2x80x9cpodxe2x80x9d of paintballs which is used to refill the gun magazine. Conventional paintball pods require some period of time to open and pour the paintballs into the gun magazine. As a combatant can be shot by an opposing player during this loading process and thus be disqualified, it is essential to load the gun magazine as rapidly as possible when it becomes empty without spilling or wasting paintballs in the process.
Thus, in view of the time required and other problems and difficulties associated with conventional pods and reloading processes, the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide a container for paintballs which includes a substantially semi-circular door which operates for fast loading and unloading and a method of transferring paintballs from one container to another.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a container for paintballs in which the door is biased in a closed posture.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a container in the form of pod having a semi-circular door which allows paintballs to rapidly move therethrough in multiple numbers.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a paintball container in the form of a gun magazine which also includes a semi-circular door and which has a collar extending thereabove.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a pod for containing paintballs having a rotatable door for engagement with a gun magazine also having a rotatable door whereby both doors can be opened simultaneously by rotating the pod relative to the magazine for rapid paintball transfer.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.
The aforesaid and other objectives are realized by providing a container for paintballs for rapidly loading and unloading paintballs therefrom. The form of the container may be either a magazine for supplying paintballs to the gun breech or may be a pod which can be carried by a player for use in reloading a gun magazine. In magazine form, a semi-circular door and door stop are positioned atop the magazine body with the door biased closed by a resilient member such as an attached coil spring. A collar attached to the body extends above the door for receiving a paintball pod. Both the magazine and the pod have doors and door stops which are generally semi-circular in shape. Upright tabs on the doors are used in rotating the doors around fixed axles to an open position. When the doors are closed, fixed tabs on the stops are radially aligned with the door tabs.
The method to reload a gun magazine by transferring the paintballs allows the pod to be inverted on and positioned against a shoulder within the collar of the gun magazine. Alignment marks on the outer body of the pod and on the outer body of the magazine ensure correct positioning of the pod in the magazine collar. Once so positioned with the respective fixed and door tabs contiguous, the pod is rotated in a clockwise direction whereby the fixed tab of the pod engages the door tab of the magazine, thus opening the door of the magazine. Simultaneously, the fixed tab of the magazine engages the door tab of the pod and prevents the door of the pod from moving relative to the pod, thus opening the door of the pod into coincidental alignment with the door opening of the magazine. Paintballs contained within the body of the pod are thus directed by gravity downward into the body of the magazine in a quick and rapid manner. For example, two hundred (200) balls can be transferred from the pod into the magazine in approximately two to three (2-3) seconds.
Once the balls have been so transferred, the pod is removed from the magazine collar so the gun may resume firing.